The bipartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) just released its report for the revised Senate Bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act and estimates that 22 million more Americans will be without health insurance by 2026:
CBO and JCT estimate that in 2018, 15 million more people would be uninsured under the legislation than under current law. After additional changes to subsidies for insurance purchased in the nongroup market and to the Medicaid program took effect, the increase in the number of uninsured people would rise to 19 million in 2020 and then to 22 million in 2026.
At stake if Trump’s health care bill passes are the following:
• It guts funding for Medicaid, which provides health care for our most vulnerable.
• It cuts funding for Planned Parenthood, which provides care for women and LGBTQ people.
• It dramatically weakens protections for preexisting conditions, which means that millions of people living with HIV and transgender people will lose their health care or pay exorbitant premiums.
• It will hike premiums for older Americans and make coverage unaffordable.
• It will allow insurance carriers to deny or cap coverage for lifesaving and necessary care.
Commenting on the health care bill earlier in the week California Executive Director Rick Zbur said,
“The bill unveiled today by the Senate isn’t just mean, as Donald Trump himself admits about the House version, it’s immoral. If passed, it will have a devastating impact on the health and lives of millions of LGBTQ people and people living with HIV, who will lose health insurance under the Senate bill.
“Millions of LGBTQ people would lose healthcare coverage under the legislation, including people living with HIV and transgender people who received coverage for the first time under the ACA. Because LGBTQ people are twice as likely to be living in poverty as the general public, the Medicaid expansion and federal subsidies are important components of the ACA which significantly increased healthcare coverage for people in the LGBTQ community.
“The weakening of protections for people with preexisting conditions means that insurers can once again deny coverage to millions of people or charge them exorbitant premiums, which effectively denies them coverage. The bill also guts Medicaid and hundreds of billions of dollars in federal insurance subsidies, making healthcare unaffordable for millions more. It also imposes a one-year freeze on Medicaid reimbursements to Planned Parenthood, a vital healthcare provider on which millions of women and LGBTQ people depend for a wide range of healthcare services.
“In addition to the cruel and harmful impact on the LGBTQ community, the Republican proposal would devastate the health and wellbeing of millions of vulnerable Americans, including those who are low-income, disabled, living with HIV, older than 50, in poor health or have mental health needs.
“Equality California is committed to fighting this bill in the days ahead in Washington, D.C., in California and across the country to preserve healthcare access for the LGBTQ community and all Americans.”
